Viewing from September 2015

Speech by Cuban President Raul Castro at UN General Assembly on September 28

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Esteemed heads of State and Government, Distinguished heads of delegations, Mr. Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. President, It was seventy years ago that, on behalf of their peoples, the member States of this organization signed the United Nations Charter. We pledged ourselves to preserve future generations from the scourge of war, and ... read more

Raul Castro addresses UN Sustainable Development Summit

Castro Tells Wealthy Nations to Accept Their 'Historic Debt'

News from Cuba | Sunday, 27 September 2015

The Cuban President Raul Castro addressed Saturday the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit and reiterated his government's demand that the U.S. blockade against the Cuban people be ended. The Cuban head of state said that the reestablishment of relations between Cuba and the United States, opening of embassies and the policy ... read more

Raul Castro arriving in New York

Cuban President Raul Castro Is in NY for Historic UN Summit

News from Cuba | Friday, 25 September 2015

Cuban President Raul Castro has arrived in New York late Thursday ahead of his historic participation at the United Nations General Assembly, the first by a head of state of the island nation since Fidel Castro in 2000, Prensa Latina reported. The Cuban president is expected to call on international leaders ... read more

Pope Francis in Cuba: "The World Needs Reconciliation in This Atmosphere of a Third World War"

News from Cuba | Friday, 25 September 2015

Transcript of report from Democracy Now. Click on link to watch full programme. Ahead of his first U.S. visit, Pope Francis celebrated mass in Cuba Sunday before hundreds of thousands of worshipers in Havana’s Revolution Square. Born in Argentina, Francis is the first Latin American pope. He is widely praised in ... read more

US mulls abstention on Cuba embargo vote at UN

News from Cuba | Monday, 21 September 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, the United States may be willing to accept a United Nations condemnation of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba without a fight, The Associated Press has learned. U.S. officials tell the AP that the Obama administration is weighing abstaining from the annual U.N. General ... read more

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams to visit Cuba

News from Cuba | Monday, 21 September 2015

Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams TD will travel to Cuba next Wednesday following his upcoming visit to New York this weekend for the annual Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) conference organised by former US President Bill Clinton. Gerry Adams will be in New York for the duration of the CGI and will ... read more

Rolling Stones may perform in Cuba in 2016

News from Cuba | Thursday, 17 September 2015

The iconic band, The Rolling Stones, are in final negotiations to perform in Havana at the end of March 2016, at the Latin American Stadium, a facility with capacity for 55,000 people, according to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo. Keith Richards confirmed the negotiations with the Cubans. The guitarist of the ... read more

Chief European negotiator for the EU-Cuba talks Christian Leffler (L) and Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Abelardo Moreno (R) hold the fifth round of negotiations towards a political dialogue and cooper

EU, Cuba enter difficult phase of bilateral talks, focus on political pact

News from Cuba | Thursday, 17 September 2015

The European Union and Cuba entered the most difficult phase of their bilateral talks last Thursday when they started to discuss a new political agreement to replace a unilateral policy imposed by the Europeans 19 years ago. The two sides have met five times over the past year-and-a-half in search of ... read more

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez presents the annual report on the effects of the US blockade at a press conference in advance of the UN vote next month

US Blockade Costs Cuba US$833 Billion in Five Decades

News from Cuba | Wednesday, 16 September 2015

The blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States has impacted the country's economy to the tune of US$833.7 billion in five decades, the Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez announced in a press conference Wednesday. The figure differs to a U.N estimate of US$117 billion between 1960 and 2014. “A claim by ... read more

Photograph: Ismael Francisco/AFP/Getty Images

Raúl Castro expected to address UN meeting of world leaders

News from Cuba | Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Cuban president Raúl Castro is expected to address the annual United Nations gathering of world leaders later this month for the first time, the UN has indicated. It would be Castro’s first trip to the United States as president. An updated UN list of speakers notes that the Cuban head of ... read more

TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady speaking at the fringe meeting on Monday 14 September

Support for Cuba at TUC fringe

Campaign News | Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Almost a hundred people packed the Cuba and Venezuela fringe meeting at the TUC in Brighton on Monday evening. Christine Blower, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said how both countries put people before profit and “spread hope and not fear across Latin America and the world”. She said ... read more

USAID is hiring Cuba program managers

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 15 September 2015

The U.S. Agency for International Development announced on 9 September that it is seeking managers to run its Cuba programs. Salaries will range from $90,823 to $139,523 per year. The job announcements - here and here - do not say how many people will be hired, but describe a need for ... read more

Giustino holds a photograph of his son Fabio at a vigil for justice for victims of terrorism in Havana

Giustino Di Celmo, friend of Cuba, dies

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Giustino Di Celmo, a friend of the Cuban Revolution and who lost a son in Havanato a terrorist bomb died on 1 September at the age of 94. Di Celmo, a merchant by profession, traveled to Cuba for the first time in 1992 and during the most difficult years of the ... read more

By Their Words Ye Shall Know Them: the US Goal in Cuba

News from Cuba | Friday, 11 September 2015

U.S. political leaders are rethinking Cuba. Business leaders have spoken out. Public opinion favors ending hostilities, even among Cuban Americans. Foreign policy specialists hold that fixing relations with Cuba may boost the U.S. image throughout Latin America. But primarily, beating up on Cuba did not work. Or, as President Obama ... read more

Despite Better U.S.-Cuba Relations, Guantanamo Set To Stay In U.S. Hands

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 8 September 2015

The only American military installation abroad that's unwelcome to its host government is the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A treaty signed in 1934 leases Guantanamo to the United States in perpetuity, for about $4,000 a year. And the U.S. has no plans to leave, despite the two ... read more

Cuba achieves Millennium Development goals despite blockade

News from Cuba | Monday, 7 September 2015

NEW YORK.— Cuba expressed its concern over the lack of integrated global efforts being made to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) included in the Post-2015 Agenda which will be presented to heads of state and government for their consideration at the end of this month. Speaking before the World ... read more

Operation Miracle surgeries in Paraguay Surpasses 5,500 this year

News from Cuba | Friday, 4 September 2015

The Cuban 'Operation Miracle' mission in Paraguay surpassed 5,520 eye surgeries performed in the course of this year today. Their work in 2015 began on January 26 for being the staff on holiday and closed on September 1 with 5,521 surgeries, of which 1,605 were of cataract, totaling 25,655 operations in ... read more

Lift the blockade - Stop punishing Cuba's people

News from Cuba | Friday, 4 September 2015

The flag-raising ceremony at the U.S. Embassy in Havana marked the successful conclusion of what Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the "firsts stage" in the process of normalising relations. Now comes the hard part. Myriad other issues still divide Washington and Havana, but none is more consequential that the U.S. economic ... read more

An arugula-growing farmer feeds a culinary revolution in Cuba

News from Cuba | Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Like all homestead stories, Fernando Funes Monzote’s starts with an epic battle against harsh elements and long odds. Funes, a university-trained agronomist, settled on a badly eroded, brushy hillside outside Havana four years ago and began digging a well into the rocky soil. The other farmers nearby thought he was ... read more

Photo: Ismael Francisco/ Cubadebate

BBC exclusive interview with Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Miami Five/Cuban Five

Campaign News | Tuesday, 1 September 2015

Gerardo thanked the people of Britain once again for their solidarity with Cuba and for their efforts in the campaign to free the Five The BBC broadcast an exclusive interview today with Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five. Gerardo was interviewed by leading UK commentator Adrian Chiles on BBC Radio ... read more